Mid/Late 1970-February 1975:
Elf

Members

History

After recovering from the car crash and getting new pianist to
replace Doug Thaler, the band changed their name from
The Elves
to Elf. They played at clubs, colleges and bars looking for a record
contract. Roger Glover and Ian Paice of Deep Purple happened to see
them auditioning for Columbia in January 1972 and offered to produce
an album for them.

In April 1972 the band went with those two Deep Purple members to
record an album at Studio One in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The studio
sessions yielded band's first LP and it was called simply Elf.
After the release of it, the band played as the support band for
Deep Purple on at least two US tours; August - September and November
- December 1972. However, those dates aren't necessarily fully
correct, Elf may've toured with Deep Purple at other dates, too.

Discography

Members

History

After losing Feinstein in early 1973, the band got a new guitarist,
as well as a new bassist. Ronnie James Dio had decided to quit playing
bass and concentrated only on singing. Besides playing keyboards,
Mickey Lee Soule also began singing with Ronnie.

In the summer of 1973, Elf signed a new record contract with
MGM Records in USA and with Purple Records in the UK. In early
1974 the band travelled to UK to record their second album at
The Manor Studios. It was produced by Roger Glover
and was called Carolina County Ball. However, the USA release was under
different name, L.A. / 59, and had totally different
sleeve. The reasons behind the name change are not known.

After release of Carolina County Ball, Elf toured supporting
Deep Purple on their UK tour in April-May 1974. At the same time
Ronnie James Dio and Mickey Lee Soule
participated also Roger Glover's solo project called
Butterfly Ball And The
Grasshopper's Feast. Ronnie sung three songs on that album.

In the summer of 1974 Elf travelled to USA to support
Deep Purple on their US tour. At least some of the shows featured
also Aerosmith - this happened at least in August 1974 at Dillon
Stadium in Connecticut, USA.

Elf also went to studio with Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple
to record a single called Black Sheep Of The Family. Besides Elf,
there were other musicians, for example keyboardist Matthew Fisher
from Procol Harum as well. The song was supposedly originally written
by a band called Quartermass.

After some time Blackmore contacted Ronnie James Dio and asked if he
would be interested in doing another track together with him.
Ronnie wrote a song in the same night and went to record it with
him. The song was called Sixteenth Century Greensleeves. It was meant
to be released as a B side for the Black Sheep Of The Family, but for
some reason the single was never released - the version of Black Sheep
Of The Family on the first Rainbow album should differ from the
original version at least to some extent. Existence of an acetate of
the original recording has been rumored, but at least this far no-one
has come up with one.

Right after the recording of Sixteenth Century Greensleeves
Blackmore asked Ronnie whether he and rest of the Elf
would be interested in putting a band together with him.
Elf was supposedly already recording Trying To Burn The Sun at this
time, and they decided to form
Rainbow
right after the album was recorded.

Discography

Members

History

After Elf recorded Black Sheep In The Family with Ritchie Blackmore,
they returned back to UK in early 1975 with one new man, Mark Nauseef,
who had joined the band in December. Elf went to record their third
album at Kingsway studios, again with Roger Glover as producer.

After recording the album, Elf splitted up immediately, even before
the album was actually released. Mark Nauseef left on his own and
guitarist Steve Edwards was fired, since the band formed
Rainbow
with ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Blackmore had
followed the recording process of the third Elf album but he didn't
play on it, despite some rumors at that time.

This third album, Trying To Burn The Sun, was not released in the UK
because the band wanted to avoid a clash with the first Rainbow album
which was released shortly after the release of Trying To Burn The Sun
in the USA. There are some rumors around about a live album, simply
titled as "Elf Live", that should've been released in 1976, but those
rumors have not been confirmed as no-one seems to have a copy of it.

Trying To Burn was the first album where Ronnie James Dio
used his second name. He started to use it when Blackmore
once asked him 'What's your second name? Why don't you use it as a
part of your name?'